Narcissa Malfoy (WAS: Everything Stolen (WAS: Why the Dark Mark?

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 121919


Halli:
> >I would just like to point out that that would most definently
*not* put them in Molly and Arthurs age group. In fact, they are
*much* younger. I don't have my book with me, but in GOF, when Molly
comes to Hogwarts just before the third task, and Harry takes them on
a tour, she reminises about the groundskeeper before Hagrid, a man 
named 'Ogg' I think. Which means shes older than Hagrid and Tom, and 
since they were (I think) 61 in COS if my calclations are correct, 
she had to have graduated at least a year before Hagrids expulsion, 
making her... at least 5 or 6 years older than him.< 
> 
> Betsy reaponded:
> I checked the Lexicon and it has Molly's year of birth somewhere 
> around the 1950s, while Tom Riddle was born in the mid-20s (1926?).  
> Plus, is there canon that states Hagrid was hired on as head grounds 
> keeper *immediately* after his expulsion?
> 
> I admit, I don't think there's canon that states their ages one way 
> or another, but Arthur Weasley and Lucius Malfoy always struck me as 
> contemporaries.


Carol replies:
I checked the Lexicon and didn't find birthdates for Molly and Arthur.
Even Charlie's years of attendance at Hogwarts are marked as
uncertain. Can you tell me where you found this information (which
section of the Lexicon)? And if you're right, I hope Lexicon Steve
will explain his criteria for having the Weasleys born in the 1950s
because I'm sure that they're considerably older than Lucius Malfoy.

Malfoy, age 41 at the end of GoF, would have been born around 1955 if
MWPP and Snape were born in 1960 (the Lexicon says 1954 for Malfoy,
but I think that's off by a year). At any rate, the evidence of Ogg
the groundskeeper, mentioned by Halli, suggests that the Weasleys were
much older. Surely Hagrid, who was in his forties or fifties at the
time, would have been groundskeeper throughout Malfoy's years at
Hogwarts (ca. 1966-1973). Mrs. Weasley also mentions that Apollyon
Pringle, not Argus Filch, was caretaker when she went to school. But
it was Filch, not Pringle, who deprived MWPP of the Marauders Map, and
their time at Hogwarts (ca. 1971-1978) overlaps Malfoy's by about two
years. Filch's age is hard to determine, but he seems at least as old
as Hagrid, so I'm guessing that he was caretaker throughout Malfoy's
Hogwarts years as well as (presumably) MWPP's. I think it's
significant that both the caretaker and the groundskeeper were
different for the Weasleys than for MWPP et al., and JKR seems to be
using this information to suggest that they're considerably older.
(Given the slower aging of the wizarding population, Molly having
children in her sixties or thereabouts shouldn't be surprising.)

As for canon stating that Hagrid became groundskeeper immediately, I
don't know of any, but there had to be a reason for keeping him at
Hogwarts. Since DD was not headmaster then, he must have persuaded
Armando Dippett to allow "little" Hagrid, aged about fourteen, to stay
on as Ogg's assistant. Certainly they would not have fired Ogg and had
an untrained, disgraced fourteen-year-old take his place. It's
possible that Molly attended school while Hagrid was serving his
apprenticeship, but surely she would have mentioned it. She seems to
have been at school *before* Hagrid and not to have known him there.
Maybe JKR has some better explanation, but I can't think of one.

Carol, agreeing with Halli that Arthur Weasley and Lucius Malfoy are
probably not contemporaries despite what is clearly a personal grudge
between them